1. Field Of The Invention
This invention relates to apparatus for maintaining bed clothes, such as a mattress cover and/or a bed sheet, on a water bed mattress, and provides structure to facilitate lifting a corner portion of a water bed mattress to facilitate assembly of a sheet or mattress cover onto the water bed mattress, or for removal of same from the water bed mattress.
2. Description Of The Prior Art
Form fitting sheets and mattress covers for use on ordinary mattresses are known which use an elastic member that is arranged to fit, or stretch, over and across a bottom portion of the mattress adjacent each corner. In other mattress coverings, a peripheral edge portion of the covering is tucked under the mattress to maintain the mattress coverings in a desired position attractively covering the top, or sleeping surface, of the mattress.
In water beds that include a liquid filled mattress in which the mattress is positioned on a bottom support surface and confined by a peripheral frame, with the side walls of the liquid filled mattress effectively surrounded, or confined by the inner surface of a surrounding frame, it is difficult for a person who is making up the water bed to get a hand, or hands, between the inner surface of the frame and the mattress to enable reaching to the bottom of the mattress. This is due, in part, to the considerable weight of the mattress of a water bed, and the difficulty of grasping the mattress to lift a corner portion of it upward to a position where the cover member, or bed sheet, may be fitted onto and under the lower edge of the water bed mattress.
Additionally, due to the yielding nature of a liquid filled mattress, and particularly water-filled mattresses, conventional elastic bottom corner engaging members or stays are difficult to maintain engaged with the mattress to maintain the bed clothes in their proper desired position on the mattress.
Various structures for handling mattresses and/or maintaining bed clothes on the mattress are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,035,222; 1,566,907; 2,291,444; 3,092,848; 4,089,075; 4,199,831; 4,228,555; 4,276,667 and 4,400,836.
None of the U.S. patents identified above show or suggest the novel structure and function of a corner device for a water bed such as disclosed herein, in which the corner device is constructed and arranged to serve as an aid in lifting a corner of a water bed mattress that is confined in its frame, and in which the lift member has retaining features provided thereon that afford easy engagement, or removal, of a sheet and/or a mattress pad to the corner device, and in which, upon lowering the lift member, serves to maintain the corner of the engaged mattress cover, or sheet, neatly and in its desired position.